Shaw family of Stainland

The following source list was originally available only on paper in one of the West Yorkshire Archive Service offices. It may have been compiled many years ago and could be out of date. It was designed to act as a signpost to records of interest on a particular historical subject, but may relate only to one West Yorkshire district, or be an incomplete list of sources available.

Shaw Family of Stainland

John Shaw (1749-1820) started in business at Brook Mill, Lower Holywell Green, Stainland, in the 1770s. This was a small mill with its own water wheel and dam fed by the Holywell Brook. In 1781, John Shaw obtained a room in the Halifax Piece Hall (no 18 in the Rustic Storey) and in 1789 he obtained a 2nd room (no 34 in the Collonade). In 1786, he moved from Dean House to Lower Fold, Upper Holywell Green, maintaining weaving shops at both locations. He bought Lower Fold in 1794, one of the fields attached being Brook Royd, where he built his 1st small mill. His 2 sons, Joseph and George, soon became actively involved in the business, known as John Shaw and Sons from 1794. In 1812, Brookroyd Mill came under attack from a group of Lancashire Luddites. Joseph Shaw cleverly persuaded them to break the waterwheel rather than individual machines and the mill was up and running again in 3 days. In 1835 the firm purchased Rawbank or Rawroyds Mill and it was agreed that George Shaw and his sons would run the mill and Joseph Shaw would still trade under the name of John Shaw and Sons.

Samuel Shaw, the 2nd son of Joseph, became the great driving force in the expansion of the business from the 1840s to his death in 1887, when John Shaw and Sons employed a workforce of 1200 people and traded in everything from the raw wool to dyed and finished serges. He greatly extended the mills, the 1st of the large mills being built in 1851. From 1878-1880, Samuel's son, John Edward Shaw, was the Firm's representative in Shanghai, and his work there gave a tremendous impetus to the newly established trade with China in long ells, camlets and lastings. On Samuel's death, he took over the full management of the business until liquidation in 1930. In nearly 170 years of trading there was only 1 strike - of women narrow-loom weavers in 1890.

The business records in the collection held in the WYAS, Calderdale (SHA) reflect manufacturing processes in great detail as well as the growth of the Firm's export of textiles in the 19th century. The numerous textile samples in the collection include superb wool and cotton samples of many of Shaw's competitors in China in 1879-1880 as well as samples for the domestic market.

The family records illustrate the life of a well-to-do manufacturing family, as they experienced the ups-and-downs of family life, moved to grander houses, travelled, enjoyed their hobbies, and influenced local affairs. There is a fine collection of both formal and informal photographs of the Shaw family, beginning with James Shaw (1808-1876), and of influential local families related by marriage, including the Baldwin, Whiteley and Whitworth families (c1850s-1960s). The Shaw family travelled extensively, and there are photographs of visits to Egypt, Australia, Tasmania, India, South Africa, Norway, China, etc. In South Africa in 1923, for example, Raymond Shaw photographed Zulu dance displays at the Robinson Deep Mine, Johannesburg, with members of the MCC cricket team there as guests, whilst in Germany in 1937, he took a snap of Hitler Youth members. There are photographs of their Stainland houses - Brooklands, demolished in 1930, and Holywell Hall. Photographs of the Brooklands gardens include the Victorian "carpet bedding" used until 1895, and the magnificent aviaries built by Samuel Shaw (1818-1887), whilst interior photographs show rooms and furnishings, such as the drawing room sideboard with ornaments from the Paris Exhibition of 1867. There are also photographs of a glider, built in 1909 by a youthful Alexander Shaw. It crashed causing a family row because the chauffeur/pilot was too injured to work!

The Shaw family did not escape unscathed from world conflicts. Of the 3 sons of John Edward Shaw (1856-1936), in the 1st World War, John Leslie Shaw (1886-1925) never fully recovered from his wounds at Gallipoli and died in 1925. Alexander Shaw (1888-1918) died in action at Steenwerk on 10 April 1918 and Raymond Shaw (born 1890) was severely wounded in October 1918. The collection includes an eye-witness account of the death of Alexander Shaw, while fighting a revolver duel with a German Officer, and agonisingly both a telegram reporting him missing and another giving the family the false news that he was hospitalised.

There are memorial cards, including for 3 of the children of Samuel Shaw, aged 1-8, who all died between 6-21 October 1862 of diphtheria; Edwardian pictorial menus for dinners at Southwood End, Halifax, 1899-1926, home of the related Whitworth family; and invitations to Buckingham Palace garden parties. There is also an unpublished manuscript written by Raymond Shaw entitled - "Looking back".

For further information see The Shaws of Stainland by R M Shaw, Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society 1965, pp45-69.